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One of the toughest things for someone who has an alcohol problem to admit is that they have a problem.

If you’re someone who is suffering from alcohol addiction, then you may feel like you can get control over your problem anytime you’re ready. It just doesn’t work this way. Alcoholism is a disease and it’s one that can impact not just the person who is consumed by drinking, but those around them.

Alcoholics Anonymous is a program that offers 12 primary steps in order to help people on the road to recovery. It’s not a program someone will immediately get involved in. First they might attend discussion groups or just connect with other alcoholics before officially getting involved in the program.

The 12 steps aren’t anything to be intimidated by, but they do require a person to make a commitment. These 12 steps are designed to attack the core of the problem in a way that will ensure a person see things differently.

Below are the 12 steps along with a brief explanation as to how they can help recovering alcoholics.

What’s even better about them is that each can be modified and applied in different ways based on the step you feel is going to be the most essential to you. Superior clarity and understanding is what you want to focus on.

Yes, going through all the steps to make it to the end of the program (whether it was voluntary or court ordered) is a good thing.

However, truly understanding the power of these steps is what will enable you to gain the external strength and the internal strength you need to keep alcoholism under control now and moving forward.

• The First Step
“We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.”

Look at this step for what it is and this would be mainly you admitting that you’re powerless over your problem. It has power over you which means it’s consuming you. Admitting this one thing takes back some of the power.

• The Second Step
“Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

The primary point of this step is to provide a sense of hope for those who at the moment might not have any. Hope will be the fuel that gets most recovering alcoholics through the rough times when they feel like they want to give in and give up.

• The Third Step
“Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”

• The Fourth Step
“Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.”

The main purpose of this step is to help you be brutally honest about who and what you’ve become due to your alcohol problems. Think of it as doing a life review, but more so focusing on what has happened as a result of your drinking problems. This leads to a superior understanding of what needs to be changed, can be changed and what you believe you can change.

• The Fifth Step
“Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.”

The primary purpose of this step is to not keep your feelings inside after you gone through the previous step. You have to open yourself up to others in a way you never have before, especially if you hope for them to do the same for you. This openness will lead to a greater sense of control.

• The Sixth Step
“Were entirely ready to have God remove all of these defects of character.”

The purpose of this step is for you to let go, let go of all the behaviors that contribute to your alcoholism problems. This step isn’t as easy as it sounds and in some cases people might have to take baby steps in order to fully let go of everything that’s holding them back from making positive change in their lives.

• The Seventh Step
“Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.”

The primary purpose of this step is for you to be humble. Asking a higher power to help you remove defects and character flaws takes humbleness. It takes humility. It also takes belief.

• The Eighth Step
“Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.”

The goal of this step is for you to take inventory of people you have hurt or feel you’ve hurt due to your alcoholism problems. You will want to write out a complete list of names.

• The Ninth Step
“Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.”

This step is all about taking action on the previous step. What are you going to do in order to make things right? When are you going to do these things? You’ll want to focus on action steps you can take.

• The Tenth Step
“Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.”

The primary word to keep in mind with this step is vigilance and diligence. Once you’ve made positive change you’ll need to keep on it in order to sustain it. The goal is to grow as a person so you’ll be strong enough to handle temptation in the future.

• The Eleventh Step
“Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”

The main purpose of this step is for people to focus more on the spiritual side of things. Most people believe in a higher power and drawing on this higher power will help you to gain internal strength and spiritual strength.

• The Twelfth Step
“Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”

The purpose of this step is for recovering alcoholics to be of help to others while at the same time continuing to help themselves on the road to recovery.

Getting over alcoholism isn’t easy and there are people who relapse. Some also need to attend a clinic such as this alcohol and drug rehab in Glasgow, Scotland. Alcoholism can start because someone likes the feeling of being drunk, but it’s usually about escape from pain or a reality that’s not what people would like it to be. These 12 steps are something recovering alcoholics would have to partake in long term and this commitment is something that doesn’t come easy.

This is why it’s a good idea to take your time, truly focus on the practicality of each step and figure out how you can use it whenever you need to for strength and guidance.

For those who have never been to Alcoholics Anonymous before what is it?

You can think of Alcoholics Anonymous as a group of people who have a problem with alcohol, an admitted problem. Coming to AA is the first step on them getting over their addiction.

The purpose of AA is to not only help alcoholics to stop drinking, but to get a level of emotional and group support they might not get anywhere else.

What can a recovering alcoholic expect when they first go to Alcoholics Anonymous?

In most cases, not all, you can expect an AA meeting to be operated by the members of the group themselves. There isn’t really any hierarchy or central figure you’ll be answering to. And the nature of the meetings can change from meet to meet, meaning that the group can decide how they want to run it or what to focus on.

Are these types of meetings open or are they closed affairs?

AA can be either open or closed. In the case that they are open this would mean anyone can go, which would include people who don’t have an alcohol problem, friends, counselors, family members or even students/educators. If the meetings are closed then this would mean only those who are alcoholics can attend or someone who wants to know if they truly have a drinking problem.

What is the main format used for AA meetings?

You’ll find that AA meetings can have various sorts of formats, but in the majority of instances you’ll come across two primary ones. The first is going to be speaker meetings and the second one will be discussion based meetings. You can find a meeting here: aa find a meeting uk.

What’s the primary reason why someone should go to AA versus trying to get over their problem themselves?

Trying to tackle the problem of alcoholism by yourself is going to be tough and usually most people’s problem will isolate them from everyone else. Going to AA is the best way to connect with people who have the exact same problem as you do and get support. Sometimes just talking about the problem to others who are willing to listen is a good way to start on the road to recovery.
What are some of the main advantages and disadvantages to using AA to overcome addiction?

Advantages:
• You’ll be getting help in an environment that’s very well structured and this is what a lot of people with drinking problems lack in their everyday environments.
• You get to develop valuable insight and strength from listening to other peoples experiences with alcohol addiction. This will be a chance to drop your guard and open up like you might not be able to do elsewhere.
• Having access to what can become a powerful network of support from other recovering alcoholics can help to stop relapsing. This is important because most people trying to get over alcohol addiction don’t have family or friends to call on for such support.
• Alcoholics Anonymous doesn’t cost anything. This makes it easy to access and won’t require much from you other than to be committed to being consistent with attending meetings.

Disadvantages:
• In some cases alcoholics might not have a choice but to attend AA if it’s ordered by a court as a condition to avoid jail time.
• Sometimes the mixing of different age groups can be problematic for those who are especially vulnerable. Younger people for instance might be around older people who have other addiction and in some cases they can have a bad influence.
• AA meetings usually take place in a person’s community, which means that despite treatment they are still going to be around the same influences each day.
• AA isn’t the same as getting treatment in a rehabilitation clinic, meaning a place where there’s going to be medical professionals on site to offer assistance for recovering alcoholics.
• AA can be somewhat time consuming and on top of this the program does tend to have religious vibes at times.

How do the 12 steps of AA help recovering alcoholics?

First let’s briefly go over the 12 step program:

• Admitting that alcohol has a hold over you and that it has taken over your life
• Trust that with faith and strong belief you can restore your life back to a state of balance
• Make a decision to turn over your life to the will of a higher power, whatever higher power you believe in.
• Take an honest look at yourself in the mirror in terms of who and what you have become from a moral standpoint.
• Admit to others the nature of your problems; make yourself vulnerable by connecting with others.
• Be willing to take measures to remove shortcomings from your life
• Be willing to ask for help from those who have the power to help you remove shortcoming or overcome them.
• Write out the names of everyone you have wrong and what measures you can take to make things right with them.
• Be serious about doings things to make up for the wrongs you have caused others due to your addiction whenever you get the chance.
• Consistently reevaluate yourself in order to ensure you stay on the right course in your recovery
• Engage in meditative practices in order to help you gain more internal strength so you can be better at fighting off the temptation to give in to alcohol consumption.
• Speak to other recovering alcoholics about what you learned through AA as a means to lend them greater support and serve as an example for them.

These 12 steps are effective in helping recovering alcoholics because they provide three main things, guidance, order and direction. All three of things are things that are lacking in most of the lives of people who abuse alcohol.

These steps aren’t something to be used once and then discarded.

They are meant to be referenced to at any time a recovering alcoholic feels they need something to draw strength from in order to stay in control of their alcohol abuse problems.